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... Valve itself has stated that they don't know when Hl2E3 is coming out. I think they put down the release date at about the same time as the apocalypse on the official website. Hopefully for you, now that they've had a chance to work on Portal for a little time, they can now focus on Half-life.

I don't necessarily need a release date. I just want some indication of progress. Even if they lie to me and give me screen caps from three years ago that they never bothered to release, at least it's SOMETHING.

Portal 2 is a great accomplishment for them. But it's rather bad form to continuously snug a large portion of your fan base by ignoring one of the biggest franchises in gaming when you've stated repeatedly in the past that it is not yet complete and a third episode is to follow.

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A good plan violently executed today is better than a perfect plan executed at some indefinite point in the future. –General George S. Patton, Jr.

Anime in progress and enjoying:Persona 4 the goldenAnimes on Hold:NoneAnimes completed:I wanna be the strongest in the world,Super Sonico The Animation, Hajime no Ippo:Rising, Wake up girls,Mangaka-san to Assistant-san to The AnimationAnime evaluating:NoneManga in progress:None at the moment

In portal 1 and the first and third sections of portal 2, the tests are contrived areas designed to be "solved" by design, for the most part.

In the final part of portal 1, when you go out of the test chambers, the game definitely feels less "on rails"... For example in the final battle with Glados, the solution feels more "found" and organic. There's a bunch of different ways to get the cores in the fire, etc...

On the other hand, in portal 2 there are large sections which are not "test chambers". Mainly they are sections like the turret factory or getting from sphere to sphere of the retro test chambers, and also the final battle.

However these sections are just as "singular solution" as the sections in the test chambers, if not even moreso! Some of the methods to get up shafts during "the climb" are just ridiculously contrived, where leaks of goo and platforms are placed just in such a way to make proceeding forward possible.
Crucify me if you'd like, but it ruins the _realism_ of the story in my opinion.

The last boss fight is a perfect example of this, where the "randomly" splattered goo is "randomly splattered" in precisely the right places to enable you to reach the targets.

"Press any key to vent radiological emissions into atmosphere"? What the heck?

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When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

So you much rather the splatter be truly random, so that it would be blind luck to determine if it is even possible to win the fight at all?

It's not a puzzle game if the puzzle is unsolvable by design. And definitely worse if it turns into a luck based mission.

No, what I'd like is that the "puzzle" for things that aren't supposed to be contrived tests is in figuring out how to use the objects in the environment to win in a clever way.

Like, say, take the final boss and make it so that there's 3 pipes leaking the three fluids, but basically straight down on the floor, however you can portal much of the floors and walls.
Then it's up to you to figure out how and where to paint the different goo to get to the various cores. Plus, the cores could be randomly dropped instead of appearing in fixed positions. The boss could periodically wash away some of the goo just to make things more interesting, etc...

Would this make the game harder? Sure. But it wouldn't be luck based. It'd be practice, and skill based, in addition to puzzle solving.

As it was now, I beat the final boss on my first try, and my thought process was basically "hmm, that panel is white, so I should portal there". or "the floor has acceleration goo, so I should run along there". It was reverse engineering the environment instead of figuring out how to manipulate the environment to do what you want.

No, what I'd like is that the "puzzle" for things that aren't supposed to be contrived tests is in figuring out how to use the objects in the environment to win in a clever way.

Like, say, take the final boss and make it so that there's 3 pipes leaking the three fluids, but basically straight down on the floor, however you can portal much of the floors and walls.
Then it's up to you to figure out how and where to paint the different goo to get to the various cores. Plus, the cores could be randomly dropped instead of appearing in fixed positions. The boss could periodically wash away some of the goo just to make things more interesting, etc...

Would this make the game harder? Sure. But it wouldn't be luck based. It'd be practice, and skill based, in addition to puzzle solving.

As it was now, I beat the final boss on my first try, and my thought process was basically "hmm, that panel is white, so I should portal there". or "the floor has acceleration goo, so I should run along there". It was reverse engineering the environment instead of figuring out how to manipulate the environment to do what you want.

If the cores were randomly dropped, it would mean that the core would be easier or harder to reach depending on your current location, your gel placements, and how much time you have left.

Let me ask you, how is that suppose to be fair?

And you only have two minutes gap between each core. You get 1 minute to figure out the puzzle, and one minute leeway for failing to execute the puzzle before succeeding.

And "practice"? I think you mean "dying a lot".

If you want seriously hard puzzles, Co-op is where they all are. And I am sure there would be future DLC that would add even harder things.

Valve said they could have made the Single Player as hard as they liked. But it would just end up with players quitting in frustration. Their job isn't to stop you from seeing the ending, or why even bother have an ending? This isn't the Arcades, where Valve needs you to insert more quarters into the machine so you could get more Continues.

Everyone who use their head can reach the Single Player ending. That is the entire goal of Valve in designing the Portal 2 level difficulty.

If the cores were randomly dropped, it would mean that the core would be easier or harder to reach depending on your current location, your gel placements, and how much time you have left.

Let me ask you, how is that suppose to be fair?

And you only have two minutes gap between each core. You get 1 minute to figure out the puzzle, and one minute leeway for failing to execute the puzzle before succeeding.

And "practice"? I think you mean "dying a lot".

If you want seriously hard puzzles, Co-op is where they all are. And I am sure there would be future DLC that would add even harder things.

Valve said they could have made the Single Player as hard as they liked. But it would just end up with players quitting in frustration. Their job isn't to stop you from seeing the ending, or why even bother have an ending? This isn't the Arcades, where Valve needs you to insert more quarters into the machine so you could get more Continues.

Everyone who use their head can reach the Single Player ending. That is the entire goal of Valve in designing the Portal 2 level difficulty.

I dunno, I beat the final boss easily on my first try with time to spare and it was disappointing. Maybe other people found it mildly challenging.
Even if it's a puzzle game, the final boss shouldn't be way easier than the previous hour of the game.

I dunno, I beat the final boss easily on my first try with time to spare and it was disappointing. Maybe other people found it mildly challenging.
Even if it's a puzzle game, the final boss shouldn't be way easier than the previous hour of the game.

The entire game up to that point was there to train you for the boss fight. The intention being that by the time you reached the final chamber, you know all the tricks needed to win the game. The fact that you think it is easier than earlier parts is just proof that the training worked; all the earlier puzzles are studies, the boss fight was the final exam. If you learn everything you are suppose to learn, the exam is always easy.

The developer's commentary for the final boss fight said they originally thought about having the boss have turrets on himself he'd fire but thought it was too punishing after playtesting, and then they thought about using spike plates that would smash the player but also thought that was too punishing after playtesting.

But yeah... it was kind of simple. When they paint some place with a gel you have been trained to use it.